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From the “Make Believe Ballroom” to the Meadowbrook Inn: Charlie Barnet and the Promise of the Road

in Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams: Place, Mobility, and Race in Jazz of the 1930s and ’40s

This chapter investigates Charlie Barnet, who developed for his orchestra an explicitly black musical style, and also addresses his songs “Pompton Turnpike,” and “Drop Me Off in Harlem.” These songs ... More

This chapter investigates Charlie Barnet, who developed for his orchestra an explicitly black musical style, and also addresses his songs “Pompton Turnpike,” and “Drop Me Off in Harlem.” These songs represented well the band's approach to dance band music, but they also exhibited how this aesthetic was covered in questions of place and mobility. The musical-spatial characteristics of “Pompton Turnpike” were closely linked to Barnet's understanding of certain black musical practices and what they offered his band. “Drop Me Off in Harlem” was about as hot as the Barnet band played. “Pompton Turnpike” and “Drop Me Off in Harlem” would turn out to be key moments in the band's history. The music of Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra represented a powerful aesthetic and intellectual coming to terms with the new social relationships permitted by a rapidly modernizing nation.Less

Charlie Barnet

Gwen Terry

in Clark: The Autobiography of Clark Terry

This chapter describes Clark Terry's association with Charlie Barnet and his band in California. While Clark had moved back to St. Louis and started living with Pauline and her family, he was offered ... More

This chapter describes Clark Terry's association with Charlie Barnet and his band in California. While Clark had moved back to St. Louis and started living with Pauline and her family, he was offered the chance to join Charlie Barnet's band in California. This was a huge break for Clark. Charlie was renowned for his work in movies, featurettes, live broadcasts, and he had made dozens of recordings. Clark had heard his recordings, and he liked his sound. He knew this was an offer that he couldn't refuse. His first gig with Charlie was at Jantzen Beach in Portland, Oregon. Clark and Charlie Barnet did several other recordings. They also did live performances in Philadelphia and New York. At this stage in his life, Clark was getting a feeling that a change was coming, and he was ready for it.Less

Introduction

in Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams: Place, Mobility, and Race in Jazz of the 1930s and ’40s

This book argues that 1930s and '40s dance band music provided listeners new ways to make sense of the changing spaces and places of American life. The popular music of the era significantly acted in ... More

This book argues that 1930s and '40s dance band music provided listeners new ways to make sense of the changing spaces and places of American life. The popular music of the era significantly acted in a larger cultural conversation regarding the radical demographic and geographic changes due to economic depression and global war. Americans were caught between “The Lonesome Road” and the “Street of Dreams.” Dance band jazz united Americans around a cohesive national musical style even as it transported sounds and experiences of distant places. This book also utilizes the music of Jan Garber, Duke Ellington, Charlie Christian, and Charlie Barnet. Music's intimate connection with the human body and its movements was possibly the most basic spatial component of musical experience. This Introduction provides an overview of the chapters that follow.Less

Conclusion: Air Spaces

in Lonesome Roads and Streets of Dreams: Place, Mobility, and Race in Jazz of the 1930s and ’40s

This chapter reports a brief coda that looks at an emerging spatial experience—flight—the notion of which was a significant trope in African American culture generally and jazz in particular. The ... More

This chapter reports a brief coda that looks at an emerging spatial experience—flight—the notion of which was a significant trope in African American culture generally and jazz in particular. The Charlie Barnet Orchestra recorded “Wings over Manhattan,” one example of the many associations at the time between popular culture and the fascination with airplanes and air travel. “Flying Home” utilized the airplane and the idea of “flying” to demonstrate the perilous conditions of African American existence. Jimmie Lunceford's two-beat executed a style of mobility that takes on special meaning in the context of the leader's obsession with flight. Dance band jazz, later dubbed “swing,” was not the only popular music of the era, but it reached across class, race, and ethnic lines in ways strikingly different from the fractured musical-cultural landscape of today.Less